Last month's feature presented
information about the early Wheatley family, illustrating the assertion that Dorothy Wheatley is the granddaughter of the
Thomas (Fiennes) Lord Dacre who was executed in 1541. Other sources,
however, agree
that this Thomas (Fiennes) Lord Dacre and his wife, Mary Neville (daughter
of George (Neville) Lord Dacre and his third wife) had only three
children: Thomas Fiennes who died at age 15 in 1553, Gregory
(Fiennes) Lord Dacre, and Margaret Fiennes. When Gregory (Fiennes) Lord
Dacre died without issue in 1594, his sister Margaret (Fiennes-Lennard)
inherited Hurstmonceaux and the Barony. The title then passed down
through the Lennard/Leonard family. Margaret (Fiennes) Lennard and her
husband Sampson Lennard are the parents of Thomas Leonard (1577-1638) who
married Lydia White.
This Leonard line is connected with the descendents of Thomas Bliss
of Hartford and will be featured at a later date.

This
month's feature continues information about the Dacre-Fiennes line. It is taken from the 1916 edition of The Complete Peerage of England,
Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and The United Kingdom by G. E.
Cokayne.